Children’s & Young Adult Literature Conference

Planting the Seeds of Literature

The Children’s and Young Adult Literature Conference is a symposium for educators, including public librarians, teachers, child care providers, parents, and college students enrolled in fields related to education. Held at Northland College, this conference will include keynote presentations, breakout sessions, networking time, book signing, vendors, Thursday evening reception, and Friday lunch. Online registration closes on Monday, November 6 at 4 p.m.

six breakout sessions that will focus on practical ways for educators to integrate environmental ideas through reading, language arts, and outdoor activities;

hundreds of new books on display by the CCBC for review and examination;

new ideas for how to use quality literature to increase young people’s ability to ask questions about the world around them, speculate, hypothesize, seek information, and develop questions;

strategies for meeting state common core standards for environmental education and English language arts; optional wolf howl excursion on Thursday evening;

find out more.

Keynote Speakers & Breakout Session Presenters

Emma Bland Smith

is the author of Journey: Based on the True Story of OR7, the Most Famous Wolf in the West, which has won a number of national awards, including the 2017 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. Bland Smith has several other children’s books coming out in 2018 and 2019, including What Is It Like to Live on an Island? and The Pig War, as well as a series of chapter books called Zadie Jacobs, CEO (ABDO).

Margi Preus

is the Newbery Honor winning, New York Times bestselling author of Heart of a Samurai and other books for young readers. Her books have won multiple awards, been honored as ALA/ALSC Notables, selected as an NPR Backseat Book Club pick, chosen for community reads, and translated into many languages. All her books are inspired by the natural world, especially apparent in her picture book, Storm’s Coming, which was recognized as a “good read” by the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award Committee.

Lee Ann Landstrom

is a longtime educator of children and adults. She’s a retired director of and naturalist for the Eastman Nature Center in Osseo, Minnesota. Her first book, co-authored with Karen Shragg, Nature’s Yucky!: Gross Stuff that Helps Nature Work (2003) received the Izaak Walton League of America’s Youth Book of the Year. Their second book, Nature’s Yucky! 2: the Desert Southwest (2007) has won five awards.

Karen Shragg

is a lifelong environmentalist, naturalist, educator, author, and overpopulation activist. She is a former public and private school teacher and writes children’s books, the most well-known of which is the Nature’s Yucky series co-authored with Lee Ann Landstrom and published by Mountain Press. She also conducts lectures on topics ranging from “How to Write Children’s Books” to “Vegetarian Wild Edible Cooking.”

Merri V. Lindgren

is a librarian at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center in Madison. She has co-authored numerous editions of the annual CCBC Choices, and she manages the logging of multicultural books by and about people of color and First/Native Nations. She is currently serving on the American Library Association/Association for Library Service to Children Laura Ingalls Wilder Committee and also served on the 2010 Caldecott Award Committee.

Megan Schliesman

is a librarian at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center in Madison. Schliesman has co-authored the annual CCBC Choices publication since 1993, and she manages the CCBC Intellectual Freedom of Information Services. Schliesman was the 2014 recipient of the Wisconsin Library Association/ Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award. She is active in the American Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children.

Emily M. Stone

is a naturalist by birth, training, profession, and passion. Her childhood spent as a “mud-and-water daughter” in northeast Iowa led to a degree in outdoor education from Northland College and a field naturalist master’s from the University of Vermont. Her first book, Natural Connections: Exploring Northwoods Nature through Science and Your Senses, collects weekly newspaper columns that she writes in her role as the naturalist-education director for the Cable Natural History Museum.

Adrian Wydeven

retired from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as a wildlife biologist in 2015 after more than thirty-two years working for the agency and has served on the Northland College Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Timber Wolf Alliance Advisory Council since 1990. He headed up the Wisconsin wolf recovery program that included intense monitoring of the state wolf population from 1990 through 2013. More recently, he served as the Timber Wolf Alliance Coordinator.

Conference Schedule

Thursday, November 9

Alvord Theatre

Enjoy visiting with our presenters and spend time looking at a selection of outstanding new (c2017) books for birth to grade twelve across a range of themes and topics. The books have been selected by staff of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin.

Merri Lindgren and Megan Schliesman of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will talk about some of the outstanding new (c2017) books for PreK-five classrooms and libraries across a range of themes and topics. Books are available for browsing prior to the session.

Friday, November 10 (Registration Required)

Alvord Theatre

8:15-8:45 a.m. Registration

8:45-9:00 a.m. Welcome and awards presentations

9:00-10:00 a.m. Breakout sessions

CCBC Presentation: Great New Books for PreK-Grade 5
Merri Lindgren and Megan Schliesman of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will talk about some of the outstanding new (c2017) books for PreK-five classrooms and libraries across a range of themes and topics. Books are available for browsing prior to the session.

Finding the Stories in Nature with Emily Stone
As a naturalist and educator who also loves reading, Emily is always on the lookout for the stories present in our natural observations. These stories can make even the most mundane natural objects come alive for any audience! From goldenrod galls, to leaves chewed by leaf miners, micro-hikes, microbes, and more, nature holds exciting adventures for those who know how to look.

10:00-10:30 a.m. Break, vendors, book-signing

10:30-11:30 a.m.Breakout sessions

Making the Most of the CCBC as a Resource: A Session for Educators
The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a statewide children’s and young adult literature resource library serving educators and librarians across Wisconsin. From topical bibliographies on its website to its award-winning intellectual freedom information service, the CCB has a wealth of resources available to you. This session will provide an overview of the CCBC services and provide a tour of online resources on the library’s web site. If you’ve never heard of the CCBC, or aren’t quite sure how or whether the CCBC can help you with your children’s and young adult literature needs, don’t miss this session.

Write Outside! with Margi Preus
Young writers are often encouraged to “use the five senses.” What better place to see/hear/smell/touch/taste than in the out of doors and what better place to be inspired to explore, research and write? We’ll look at some topnotch books that encourage us to get outside—whether tracking animals, looking for weather signs, or hunting for trolls—to do our own exploring and researching—while also inspiring us to write our own stories, plays, poems, or sketches.

11:30-12:30 p.m. Lunch

12:30-1:30 p.m. Keynote Presentation by Emma Bland Smith

1:30-2:00 p.m. Break, vendors, book-signing

2:00-3:00 p.m. Breakout sessions

Using Children’s Nature Literature with Lee Ann Landstrom & Karen Shragg
Many hard-to-teach nature concepts are dealt with in children’s literature. Books can also keep the magic of nature and science alive and encourage a child’s interests. As professional naturalists and authors, we’ll examine our recommended nature books, some of our favorite activities, and other ways to use children’s literature in events and programs.

The Magic of Picture Books with Emma Bland Smith
Emma Bland Smith thinks picture books are about as magical as it gets, and in this session she will share her experiences with this genre of children’s literature in her roles as mother, librarian, and writer. She will also offer reflections on the significant contributions that these books make to the growth and development of children and adults alike, with a special focus on the role of picture books for older readers.

3:00-3:45 p.m. Closing and raffle

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Online registration closes November 6 at 4:00 p.m.

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